PAST 38 BY 38 RECIPIENTS
Jeffrey Peters
"Purdue Engineering is more than a top-tier technical education. Purdue faculty, staff, and administrators champion their students and encourage them to do more than pursue academic excellence. Dr. Joseph Pekny introduced me to entrepreneurship and helped launch TEDxPurdueU. Dr. Arden Bement and Angela Phillips Diaz gave me confidence as a student leader at the Global Policy Research Institute. Dr. Thomas Hertel relentlessly advocated for my work and for me to take on greater leadership responsibility. There are many, many others. Collectively, these champions showed how to turn my Purdue Engineering education into meaningful, scalable impact on the world."
Jeffrey Peters | Civil Engineering, Economics, and Agricultural Economics
Partner, IBEX Investors
Jeffrey Peters is one of the foremost investors in the mobility startup ecosystem and has paved the way for innovation
and technological advancement. In 2021, he joined Ibex Investors to launch and lead a $113M early-stage VC fund as the
sole investing partner, becoming one of the youngest VC fund managers focused on industrials, logistics, and mobility.
He has invested in and served on the boards of more than a dozen startups, and his portfolio boasts AI software,
autonomous vehicles, advanced sensors, and electric vehicle batteries. Prior to Ibex Investors, he helped launch and
grow Autotech Ventures from $30M to $400M+ AUM. Over the course of eight years investing in early-stage startups, all of
his portfolio companies remain active, whereas the industry average loss rate for early-stage startups is estimated at
~60%.
Of his VC and angel investor support of Purdue alumni startups in areas like electric micromobility, robotics, and AI,
Peters said, "These companies are reflective of the core strengths and objectives at the heart of Purdue Engineering."
Further, through his involvement with the Silicon Valley Boilermaker Innovation Group, he has mentored Purdue student
and alumni entrepreneurs.
While at Purdue, he co-founded TEDxPurdueU in 2012, which has grown to a high-quality entrepreneurship-focused event on
campus. He was also invited as a U.S. representative to the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates in Economics and won an
Outstanding Dissertation Award for this PhD work. After earning his PhD from Purdue, Peters was awarded a $200,000
postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at Stanford University — which then launched his venture capital
career.